Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving said that things are trending in the right direction regarding extension talks with Matthew Knies and John Tavares.
During a media scrum on Thursday morning ahead of the 2025 NHL Draft, Treliving was asked how confident he was in getting the two players with expiring contracts ahead of the start of free agency on July 1st. In terms of Tavares, Treliving does not anticipate that deal failing to get across the finish line.
“ It’s been positive. As we said at the end of the year, you’ve got a player who we both expressed a shared outcome, which is John wants to stay and we want to keep John,” he said. “Like any contract, there’s usually just two stumbling blocks: term and money. Once you get by those, usually things flow pretty quick. So we’re moving, hopefully in a direction to bring it to closure. My hope is, until proven otherwise, that we’ll have a good outcome here.”
This is a more upbeat view on the state of negotiations compared to where things stood on Saturday, when The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported that the two sides were not close. The sentiment among insiders over the past 24 hours from the time of filing is that things are inclining along in regards to the Tavares talks to suggests that the gap is beginning to narrow. While it is unknown how quickly they will get this extension completed, there is a good chance they will be able to retain their former captain well before the market opens.
The same feeling applies to Knies, as Treliving made clear that he knows the 22-year-old will be getting a pay raise while acknowledging they have a bit more time to get the deal finished.
“ Lots of communication. Not the same deadline necessarily, but it goes without saying Matthew’s gonna make more than what he’s making now on his next contract,” he said. “You also want to protect yourself moving into the summer past July 1. We wanna make sure we’re protected. I’m sure the next question’s gonna be an offer sheet. That’s not anything you can operate in fear with, but you have to do proper business. So I’m hopeful that it’ll get to a good conclusion. When that is, time will tell.”
It is clear that the Leafs are aware of the looming threats of offer sheets but won’t let it get in the way of conducting their negotiations. Though Treliving did not specify how soon things would get done, the fact that he is also optimistic about the Knies negotiations suggests things have moved along well in the time since The Leafs Nation’s Nick Alberga reported last week that the two sides were far apart.
As far as other pending free agents are concerned, Treliving confirmed that he expects Mitch Marner to hit the market on July 1st while he has been in talks with some of their other players in need of new contracts such as Max Pacioretty, Nick Robertson, and Steven Lorentz.
“ With any of our free agents, we’ve talked to them. Some of them, a lot,” he said. “This is nothing against any of the other players, the UFA guys with the timeline, you’re spending probably more time there. But we’ve certainly been engaged with all of the guys that need new contracts.”
